John Carmack sheds more light on id departure

Why did John Carmack leave id Software last November? The statements issued at the time suggested that Carmack simply wanted to concentrate on his new role as CTO of virtual reality firm Oculus. But the truth, as it turns out, is a little more complicated than that.

According to a USA Today story spotted by The Verge, Carmack wanted ZeniMax, id Software's parent firm, to partner with Oculus so that Wolfenstein: The New Order and Doom 4 would support Oculus' VR headset. ZeniMax, however, wasn't interested. From the USA Today piece:

[If the deal had gone through,] Carmack would not have left id in November and would have continued working at both companies. "I would have been content probably staying there working with the people and technology that I know and the work we were doing," he says.

"But they couldn't come together on that which made me really sad. It was just unfortunate," Carmack says. "When it became clear that I wasn't going to have the opportunity to do any work on VR while at id software, I decided to not renew my contract."

As we reported last year, Carmack hoped to remain close to id as a "technical advisor"—but according to him, "it just didn't work out." In the same tweet, Carmack added, "Probably for the best, as the divided focus was challenging."